IUCN status: Vulnerable
EPBC Predator Threat Rating: Moderate
IUCN claim: “The reasons for past declines of the Golden Bandicoot are predation by feral cats and red foxes”
Cats were the main predator of a group of reintroduced, predator-inexperienced bandicoots (Blythman et al. 2020). Cats also predated on another reintroduced group (Christensen & Burrows 1995) and on locally-born bandicoots (Wysong 2016; Doherty et al. 2017). Bandicoots were last confirmed in the Nullarbor 37 years after cats arrived (Current submission).
Cat breached fence of semi-captive bandicoot enclosure, none were hunted in 5 weeks (from Moseby et al. 2015). Bandicoots were last confirmed in NSW 18 years before cats arrived (Current submission).
There are no studies linking cats to golden bandicoot populations.
The fate of reintroduced animals is not a reliable proxy for the fate of
populations. In contradiction with the claim the extirpation record from
NSW pre-dates the cat arrival record.
Abbott, The spread of the cat, Felis catus, in Australia: re-examination of the current conceptual model with additional information. Conservation Science Western Australia 7 (2008).
Blythman, M., Lohr, C., Sims, C. and Morris, K., 2020. Translocation of Golden Bandicoots, Isoodon auratus barrowensis, from a fenced enclosure to unfenced managed land on Matuwa (formally Lorna Glen) September 2015: Final Report. Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions, Perth Western Australia, 43.
Christensen, P. and Burrows, N., 1995. Project desert dreaming: experimental reintroduction of mammals to the Gibson Desert, Western Australia. Reintroduction Biology of Australian and New Zealand Fauna’.(Ed. M. Serena.) pp, pp.199-207.
Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions.
Doherty, T.S., Dickman, C.R., Johnson, C.N., Legge, S.M., Ritchie, E.G. and Woinarski, J.C., 2017. Impacts and management of feral cats Felis catus in Australia. Mammal Review, 47(2), pp.83-97.
EPBC. (2015) Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by Feral Cats. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Department of Environment, Government of Australia. (Table A1).
IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023
Moseby, K.E., Peacock, D.E. and Read, J.L., 2015. Catastrophic cat predation: a call for predator profiling in wildlife protection programs. Biological Conservation, 191, pp.331-340.
Wysong, M.L., 2016. Predator ecology in the arid rangelands of Western Australia: spatial interactions and resource competition between an apex predator, the dingo Canis dingo, and an introduced mesopredator, the feral cat Felis catus. PhD thesis, University of Western Australia, Perth.